Welcome to Litsy!

Patriarch Simeon Lee invites his adult children home for Christmas. Faithful Alfred has done his duty in looking after the family business when his father retired & Simeon resents him for it, whilst George is an MP but still relies on his father's money & isn't allowed to forget it. Meanwhile Simeon has been estranged from Harry & David for 20 years. (continued)

Themes: Classic Agatha Christie Murder mystery, Family drama, Christmas-ish

A delightful Poirot book, I enjoyed all the twists and turns that Agatha sends us on. I wish there was more Christmas in it, but oh well. Checking off the “Locked Room” square on my #christmascrimechallenge board hosted by @RaeLovesToRead and @Ruthiella

“It‘s tiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmeeeeeee” (sung in Mariah Carey voice) 🎅🏼🎄🎁❄️☃️🛷⛸️ We‘ll see how many I get through in December, but I‘m going to try participating in the #christmascrimechallenge hosted by @RaeLovesToRead and @Ruthiella

Happy Jólabókaflóð! Thank you so much, @Deblovestoread, for this lovely swap! Hygge Hour for me is tonight. I'm gonna hunker down in front of a fire with some cocoa + peppermint Schnapps, your delicious Peppermint Patties, and this holiday Poirot mystery. My heart is full. ❣️💚❣️

And thanks, @MaleficentBookDragon, for another fabulous #jolabokaflodswap. 💙❄️💙

This was another collection of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple short stories with a somewhat Christmassy background. I liked it because it was entertaining, but it seems like compilation mas mday the audiobook company because I couldn‘t find it as book.

This was a reread for me! I remembered who the killer was but not all of the other drama. It was still a good mystery!

#wintergames2024 #xmaschacha

A nice London Fog with this holiday Christie.

I never guessed whodunnit on this one. Agatha Christie really got me this time. I didn‘t love all the slights against the Spanish relative but all in all another incredibly enjoyable Poirot. I did miss Hasting in this one, but the murder was very unique and complex. I only guessed one element of the confusion with the murder, so I felt some satisfaction with that. If you love murder mysteries this is a good one for the holidays.

Just time for one more in 2023! Thanks Mr K for a great #jolabokaflod pick!

3✨This was a really fun read. As with other Poirot mysteries someone dies and it is up to Poirot and another investigator to figure it out. A family get together and their father/grandfather dies and it‘s obvious it‘s not a natural death because of all the blood that is left. I loved the fake mustache part, and I was thrown off by one character because they are not who they seem to be. There was other very clever parts that threw me off.

Not sure if I read this one way back when, but it was a nice and seasonal way to fill the Christmas Song (classic mystery) #cloakanddaggerchristmas prompt. It's full of the usual elements (country house, locked room, a family full of secrets and animosity, a will soon to be changed) and reads quickly and easily.

I love this story!

Thank you @Ruthiella for this really really cool #cloakanddaggerchristmas prompt list! I absolutely love crime and mysteries both dark and cosy during the holidays. Posting for my #snowangels to see some options for racking up some bingo boards - remember you can count any book you read for a challenge prompt as a readathon so ten points per hour read for books that fit this board! #wintergames

Reposting for @ruthiella
https://www.litsy.com/web/post/2665556

If the holiday season inspires you to have murderous thoughts, l invite you to manage your mayhem by participating the 2024 #CloakandDaggerChristmas ! The prompts are just suggestions - any mystery you read between now and December 25 counts.

Tag me in your posts and if you make a TBR. Thinking about what I want to read is almost as fun as actually reading. 😂. Tagging those who commented on @merelybookish post last week, but all are welcome.

This one was for #AgathaChristieClubR2 (February😳getting there🤣) but I already answered the questions @ferskner What can I say? I enjoy Poirot who sometimes sounds arrogant and narcissistic☺️I like the way he develops his deductive reasoning to discover the murderer. This time he will analyze “...the character of the dead man” (p.173). I enjoy all these arguments about characters‘ personalities. 3/3.5⭐️ #BookSpinBingo (#8) @TheAromaOfBooks

5. Hercule Poirot's Christmas centers around the murder of a mentally abusive parent and his children, similar to the plot and characters of Appointment with Death, which we read last month. Which family did you prefer to read about, and why? Did one book have more psychological insight than the other?

#agathachristieclubR2

4. Did you think that Christie created a good sense of Christmas in the book? Why do you think she picked that time to center her novel?

#agathachristieclubR2

3. The Lee family is large and sprawling, with many sons, their wives, and some surprise members. Did you enjoy their dynamic? How did you feel about the blood relatives of Simeon Lee vs. those who had married into the family?

#agathachristieclubR2

2. This novel is a locked-room mystery. Are you a fan of that subgenre, and did you find Christie's take on it believable/plausible? How did you feel about the intensely gruesome murder, especially compared to Christie's normal depictions of murder?

#agathachristieclubR2

It's time for our #agathachristieclubR2 questions! And I'm on time! It's a (Hercule Poirot's) Christmas miracle.

As always, please tag anyone who has already commented to keep the conversation flowing.

1. Did you like this book? Why or why not?

repost for @ferskner:

#agathachristieclubR2 friends, I'm going to have to push our schedule back a month because I've been super busy with committee work the past few weeks and just got our book for last month read. Questions will be posted on April 1! (No fooling ;) ) Here's the upcoming schedule, too. Thanks for your patience!

#BuddyRead

Original post:
https://www.litsy.com/web/post/2567902

#agathachristieclubR2 friends, I'm going to have to push our schedule back a month because I've been super busy with committee work the past few weeks and just got our book for last month read. Questions will be posted on April 1! (No fooling ;) ) Here's the upcoming schedule, too. Thanks for your patience!

1️⃣ The idea that it can actually be below 115 degrees is my favorite thing about winter. Being snuggly with the pups (and sometimes hubby) in front of the fire, drinking coffee and reading a book = best winter day ever!
2️⃣ Two faves: Hercule Poirot's Christmas and the short story The Blue Carbuncle, Sherlock's only Xmas story.
@TheSpineView
#Two4Tuesday
@Read4life (thanks for the tag!)

My current #audiobook while I declutter for our move in January.

#winterreadathon by @Andrew65

#herculepoirot #agathachristie #christmas

A little early, but a needed a quick audio filler while waiting for my book club audio to come in. This is classic Poirot…. Lots of characters involved in a locked room murder mystery that happens over Christmas. I‘m starting to realize that I‘m likely going to read all of Christie…. Maybe I‘ll call it a multi-year challenge? There are so many… and wouldn‘t want to stack them all up in a row. #bookspin

This is a delightful and ridiculously unbelievable mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Something that added to my reading experience: The book was published in 1938, the year that my grandfather escaped Spain with his two younger brothers (he was 13 at the time), and in this book there's a character who has recently left Spain and the war there, and clues suggest she might well have been from the same general region my grandpa was from.

Poirot never lets me down. Another great mystery where I didn't see the ending coming. This one felt a bit like Clue, with all the suspects in the house
#WinterGames #TeamGameSleighers @StayCurious #wintercosy @PuddleJumper #averymerryreadathon @TheSpineView #wrapitupreadathon @keys_on_fire #christmasmyway @DieAReader @GHABI4ROSES #LittenListen @aperfectmjk #AVeryMerryBingo Jingle Bells @Jadams1776

Finished this one over the weekend. It was amazing! Honestly, Christie is the best. I should just read her when I need a mystery. So excellent. Didn't see it coming. Nice and cozy for the season. Definitely going to read this one again! ❄☎️🧦

#comfysocks #festivephotochallenge #wintergames2021 #20in4 #agathachristieclubr2

This was a reread for me, it has been many years. I didn't fully remember what happened until I started reading it, but quickly did so, and it allowed me to see the clues that I might have missed the first time.
#wintergames2021 #mistletoemaniacs @Clwojick

What a book! Loved the suspense, the atmosphere and all the back stories to each strange character in and out of the family circle. Brilliant ending, and lots of red herrings! Another marvellous read from Agatha!

Enjoying another Christmas murder marathon 🎄☃️🕵🏻‍♂️gifts are ready for wrapping & cookies baked 🧑‍🎄❄️stockings are hung & family is imminent 🔥let‘s do this

Love love love Poirot!

#WinterGames #MistletoeManiacs Week 3 Total - 23,496! I keep double checking this because it doesn't seem right!! But my bingo boards are starting to really fill up now, plus that crazy word search - Finding Christmas alone had 794 words!!

#BookReport - tagged was my favorite read of the week. Bailed on a short story collection that wasn't vibing for me. The rest were perfectly fine but not amazing reads.

@Clwojick @Cinfhen

🎧 📚 Poirot is my favorite Christie.

This was a fun quick little Christmas murder mystery. A few red herrings.

What I love & expect out of a Poirot!

A comfort read … makes me want to watch a few Poirot DVDs.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Did not see that coming. And I was so sure! Definitely felt akin to the Knives Out movie. Wonderful concoction of family drama. So many off putting lying leads/traps. Not much to say that wouldn‘t spoil any of the crazy revelations. But I felt enamored by the story, reading it in one sitting. Each sibling had it out for each other. Bad house situation to have grown up in, it sounds. Christmas is a time of amends, for good and bad
#AgathaChristie

Not usually a “seasonal reader”, but decided I might as well take this for a go. It‘s also our first snow storm this weekend before Christmas. If nothing else this sounds just about the inspiration of the Knives Out who-dun-it movie - which is what inspired me to look into the mystery genre. The honcho man is killed in a locked room, where his whole family home for the holidays despise him.
#AgathaChristie

This one was vaguely familiar but I couldn't remember any of the details. When the patriarch of the family is murdered in a locked room, the problem is not a lack of suspects - his sons, their wives, and his lone grandchild are all home for the holidays and he is despised and disliked by basically all of them. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Poirot piece together the conversations and clues.

I listened to this on the drive to my parents' house in TN. I wish it had felt a tad more Christmas-y, but other than that it was a lot of fun.

Bk13 of December & #WinterGames2021 & Bk3 of #DashingDecember #readathon is done! Took me longer than usual to read this due to a heat induced headache, which is still hanging around🤕A classic Dame Agatha, except for the amount of blood involved in the crime, with an awful family forced together for the holidays. Perfect Murder setting! #AVeryMerryBingo #TisTheReadson #AVeryMerryReadathon #BlackwellsBookshelfReadathon #MistletoeManiacs 3,916pts👇

Trying to stay cool on this hot & muggy December day by reading a classic Dame Agatha set in an English Christmas. Here‘s hoping the coming thunderstorm doesn‘t kick off a blackout so the aircon & fans stop working!🤞 #MistletoeManiacs 1pt #WinterGames2021 #notwinterherethough #ChristieCrimeClub #DashingDecember #readathon

A good locked room mystery set at Christmas time. If Poirot shows up to your gathering it‘s a good sign something went wrong.

#DashingDecember book 4 of 5 #WinterCosy #BlackwellsBookshelfReadathon #AVeryMerryReadathon #LittenListen #CloakAndDaggerChristmas #HolidayHorrorsReadathon #WrapItUpReadathon #ChristmasMyWay #WinterGames #MistletoeManiacs

“Ah, but you must have a Christmas uncomplicated by murder”

My first Agatha Christie book and I was pleasantly surprised. I really thought I was going to find the book outdated and unenjoyable, but it was quite the opposite. This story had held up quite well over many decades. A rich and ailing father calls his adult children home for Christmas but then he winds up murdered a few days into the visit. It was fun getting to know the characters and making guesses as to who the murderer was & why they did it.

I finished Hercule Poirot‘s Christmas last night, so I started on The Matzah Ball on today‘s walk. I was right, I had read the Poirot book before. I still liked it, but had forgotten how bleak it feels. I‘d also forgotten who the murderer was. The Matzah Ball is a real change in atmosphere. #audiowalk